World News Quick Take

Agencies

THAILAND

Tourist stabbed over singing

A US tourist was stabbed to death in a fight over music at a bar in a beach town, police said. Bobby Ray Carter Jr, 51, died in a hospital after a brawl broke out early on Wednesday at Ao Nang beach in Krabi Province. Carter was intoxicated, began singing with the band and refused to leave the stage to let other customers sing, police said. “Witnesses said Carter got angry when the band played Hotel California instead of the song he requested, and he refused to step down,” Krabi police chief Colonel Taksin Pochakorn said. The band then stopped playing and Carter and his 27-year-old son got into an argument with the musicians, police said. Carter was stabbed in his chest with an iron rod during the fight outside the bar and his son was injured in the head. The three band members were arrested.

NEW ZEALAND

Islands to be named

The New Zealand Geographic Board yesterday proposed naming the country’s two main islands, which have never been formally named due to a clerical oversight. The board said the names had appeared on maps since European settlement began in the early 1800s, but had never been formally recognized. The islands are universally known as the North and South Islands. The board is now proposing two names each for the islands, one in English and one in the Maori language. The English versions will be the widely used North and South Islands. The suggested Maori names are Te Waipounamu — meaning rivers of green stone — for the South and Te Ika-a-Maui — the fish of Maui (a Maori god) — for the North. The change is expected to be formally adopted later this year.

DR CONGO

Rebels dismiss deadline

Rebels in the east of the country faced a deadline yesterday to lay down their arms, but they have dismissed the UN peacekeepers’ ultimatum as irrelevant. “We consider that this measure does not concern us,” M23 chief Bertrand Bisimwa said. The UN on Tuesday threatened to use force against M23 fighters near Goma if they did not disarm within 48 hours and join a demobilization program. After that, “they will be considered an imminent threat of physical violence to civilians,” the UN mission in the country said.

SOUTH KOREA

Funeral held for activist

A funeral was held yesterday for a men’s rights activist who died after jumping in the Han River in Seoul on Friday last week in a publicity stunt gone awry. Sung Jae-gi’s body was found by rescuers on Monday. The 45-year-old Sung pushed for the abolition of the gender ministry and greater compensation for men’s mandatory military service. Rescuers say a recently opened dam and heavy rain created stronger-than-normal currents.

NORTH KOREA

Floods cripple resort site

Severe floods have crippled a ski resort seen as a pet project of leader Kim Jong-un, as workers rushing to repair the site ignored nearby towns, according to reports. South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo daily on Wednesday said several buildings at the Masik resort had been buried in a landslide triggered by torrential rains that have killed 28 people nationwide. According to news site Daily NK, large swathes of farmlands and towns near the resort site were inundated as water and mud flowed down the ski slope. “But soldiers and workers mobilized to fix damages were only sent to the ski resort,” the report said.